THE MANA DORK — The Revolt Will Not Be Televised

Hello everyone! I hope your winter breaks were wonderful and relaxing, and that the Aether Revolt spoilers were the nicest-ever nutmeg in your holiday ‘nog.

We’ve got the Pre-Releases happening this Saturday, and Sunday so here’s everything you need to know!

NEW MECHANIC: IMPROVISE

Aether Revolt tells us the story of the Renegades’ struggles against the Consulate in their attempts to free up the supply of aether for the people of Kaladesh. Both sides have to get clever, canny, and creative in order to outsmart their opponents — and what better way to do that than to have a mechanic all about being clever, canny, and creative with artifacts?

Improvise lets you tap your artifacts to help cast a spell with Improvise — each artifact can tap for a single generic mana in the Improvise spell’s generic mana cost.

Improvise shares a lot of similarities with a previous mechanic, convoke — but note that Improvise does not help reduce coloured mana costs! Only the generic mana cost of a spell can be reduced by Improvise. So you can’t tap that adorable little Servo or that Implement of Invention for blue, unfortunately, as much as you might want to.

That being said, anything that reduces the cost of a spell is still a strong mechanic worth paying attention to. On average, I’d rate Improvise cards as if they costed 0.5-1.5 mana less than the printed cost on the card — and even less if you’ve got eight or more artifacts in your deck!

(Also, don’t forget you can tap artifacts that don’t normally tap for Improvise — if I get a Panharmonicon or an equipment like Torch Gauntlet in my Sealed pool, you can bet I’ll be tapping it to help cast an Improvise spell!)

NEW MECHANIC: REVOLT

The Renegades have all lost something at the hands of Tezzeret, Baral and the Consulate. And like every angry person who’s been backed into a corner, they fight back more viciously as a result. Cue the Revolt mechanic.

Cards with Revolt check to see if a permanent you control has left the battlefield this turn. Lose a creature in combat? Revolt triggers. Sacrifice a Servo so Yahenni survives a boardwipe? Revolt triggers. Flicker something with Felidar Guardian? Revolt triggers. Bounce your own things to hand with Baral’s Expertise and re-cast one of them so you can get the Revolt trigger on it? You guessed it — Revolt triggers.

(In older formats — crack a fetchland? Revolt triggers.)

Make sure to save Revolt cards for your second main phase each turn, if you can — combat is one of the easiest ways to make sure you lose a permanent. And I’d keep an eye out for things that sacrifice themselves in your Sealed pool — there are many more than average in Aether Revolt, and they will each do a good job of enabling the Revolt mechanic. If I’ve got a couple of Revolt cards that I really want to make sure paid off, I’d like to have at least 6 things that sacrifice themselves, just to make sure I have a certain amount of reliability.

A NOTE ON “EXPERTISE” SPELLS

Aether Revolt features a cycle of very strong “Expertise” spells associated with legendary creatures in the set that each do a thing, and then let you cast something for free.

I’m seeing some confusion online about precisely how they work, so I figured I’d clear it up here.

Here’s what happens when you cast an Expertise spell:

1. Cast the Expertise. The Expertise is on the stack.

2. Choose the free spell you will cast. Determine all targets and parameters of the free spell (note that X costs will be 0).

3. The Expertise resolves and goes to the graveyard. The free spell is now cast and at the top of the stack.

4. The free spell resolves and goes to the graveyard.

Important ways in which this is relevant for your Sealed pool —

A. The servos from Sram’s Expertise will be on the battlefield in time to pay any Improvise costs on the free spell, or to sacrifice for the free spell.

B. The creatures and artifacts you bounce with Baral’s Expertise will not be on the field when the free spell resolves and therefore cannot be the targets of the free spell or help pay for it with Improvise. However, if one of them was yours and it fits the criteria, you may now cast it as the free spell you get from Baral’s Expertise.

C. If you attempt to cast Yahenni for free off of Yahenni’s Expertise, Yahenni will not see the creatures die from the Expertise and will not be buffed accordingly.

D. You can cast a card you drew from Rishkar’s Expertise for free with that same Rishkar’s Expertise.

Hope this helps! If you have any questions, be sure to ask the Judge at your Pre-Release flight — they’ll be happy to help you.

SUNDAY! SUNDAY! SUNDAY! ANNOUNCING A SUNDAY PRE-RELEASE!

For the first time, A Muse N Games is hosting a Sunday pre-release event! (Kermit arms flailing)